This invention relates to developing documentation of wiring among users in a distributed communications network, such as telecommunication network in one or more buildings.
Referring to FIG. 1, typically all incoming telephone cables that service subscribers in a building 12 enter the building through a common entrance 14 (e.g., where lightning and electrical protection may also be provided). These incoming cables 10, which include hundreds of individual telephone wires, terminate at and are connected to telephone switching equipment in a main equipment room 16. The output of the telephone switching equipment is itself terminated, using so called "punch down" or wiring blocks (not shown), on a Main Distribution Frame ("MDF"). The MDF is the central location at which all configuration control is accomplished.
In a multifloor building, vertical riser system 18 serves as the medium for the routing of cables from the building entrance 14 and the equipment room 16 to each floor 17 within the building distribution system. Each floor includes a riser wiring closet 20 which serves as a termination point for the vertical riser cable. The cable is terminated on so-called "sub-distribution frames" (which provide accessible points for test, trouble-shooting, and system expansion) and cross connected to the horizontal distribution cables servicing the floor. Trunk cable pairs from these sub-distribution frames are cross-connected to the system equipment that appears on the MDF. Office drops (i.e., a single channel attachment point) are routed to a sub-distribution frame for cross connection to this trunk cabling.
For installations serving a large floor area, one or more "satellite closets" 24 can be placed on a floor to supplement the riser closet or equipment room. This remote installation decreases the amount of cable required to provide service to the floor. The riser and satellite closets typically house the same equipment. The horizontal distribution system delivers the circuit interfaces from the riser closet, satellite closet or equipment room, via punch down block cross connections, to drop locations for the subscriber's telephones or terminals. This completes building information system 26.
The punch down blocks are terminal blocks that allow for cable terminations and cross connections from one cable to another within the building distribution system. These devices facilitate moving, changing and deleting wire interfaces (e.g., as subscribers move to different locations, or as new subscribers are added).
In order to permit reliable, accurate telephone service to the subscriber, documentation as to the sources and destinations of each and every telephone wire throughout the network should be maintained. Given the large number of individual wires and the multiplicity of individual wires, documentation is a difficult task. Maintaining up to date wiring documentation is made more difficult when (as often occurs) those who service the network and move, change or delete wire interfaces at punch down blocks fail to accurately or promptly document their changes.